"Princess. Wake up. Wake up, Princess," somebody was shaking Deziara, trying to wake her up. She groaned. She didn't want to get up. The day had been so tiring and this was the first real bed she had slept in for days. It was soft and comfortable, so her body completely refused to move.

"Wake up, Deziara!" something shook her violently, and she got up, just to smack the asshole who dared to bother her rest.

"You better have a good reason for waking me up," she snarled and blinked her eyes. The room was dark aside from a small flame flickering in Azrael's hand. When she realized that it was Azrael that had woken her up, she glared at him.

First, this asshole dares to barge into Morrigan's bath and now he's sneaking into my room at night. I think it's about time somebody taught him that just because Father isn't around, it doesn't mean that he can get away with everything.

"We are about to be ambushed by the enemy if we don't escape," the white-haired demon said in a hushed voice.

"Enemy? Who?" Her focus instantly sharpened, and she slid out of the bed. Azrael snapped his fingers and before she even realized it, she was already wearing her travel clothes. That's convenient. She'd have to learn that bit of magic someday.

"We don't know who it is exactly, only that they'll strike soon. Everyone else has already gone ahead to meet outside the town," he explained.

"Hey, why am I the last one?" she grumbled.

"I came to you first, but you wouldn't wake up so I decided to deal with more cooperative demons first," Azrael grumbled. She raised her finger to object but then lowered it. Mom had always told her that it was impossible to wake her up in the mornings. But it's not like she could help it – it was just the way her body worked. It refused to wake up until she had gotten all of the necessary beauty sleep.

"What about my maids?"

"They've gone ahead along with your carriage and a few carts. We're the last ones left. Hurry up and pack your stuff, so we can leave," Azrael said and began picking up some of Deziara's belongings. She rushed to help him, picking up her clothes and throwing them into the bag. This should have been the maid's job, but she supposed there was no helping it now.

As they hurried to get all of her things, they suddenly heard something. It wasn't a loud noise and it was likely that under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have heard it at all. But in this dead quiet of the night, they unmistakably heard one of the floorboards squeak outside.

All of the maids and guards have already left and the imps don't walk, they only flutter. Does this mean that it is one of the attackers?

"Shit… They're already here. We have to go," Azrael said and put all of the stuff he managed to get into the bag in his pocket dimension. Deziara looked frantically around the room. They couldn't leave through the door now unless they wanted a direct confrontation with the enemy. It was possible that only a small group was coming to ambush them. But more likely than not, they have come prepared and brought enough people to counter their large number of guards.

"Take my hand," Azrael said, extending his hand towards her. She regarded it as if it were an ugly toad for moments, but then begrudgingly took it. However, before Azrael could teleport them to safety a strong force erupted inside Deziara's room, blinding both of them completely and cutting off Azrael's ability to shadow teleport.

Deziara let go of his hand and staggered backward, shielding her sensitive eyes from the blinding light. Something smashed the door and ran straight for Azrael, knocking him over before he had the time to get his bearings. Stunned, she saw that it was a sort of a stone golem, its enormous weight instantly knocking out the white-haired demon.

Oh, dear… This isn't good.

With Azrael unconscious, the golem turned towards her, readying to strike. But Deziara didn't wait around for him to attack her, instead she launched a fireball in his direction.

"Hahaha, foolish Princess, as if a little flame could hurt my magnificent creation," resounded a gruff, male voice and a short, figure clad in all black appeared from the hallway. His face was covered, but even so, Deziara could see that he had a large beard poking out from underneath the mask. That and his dark blue skin suggested that it was a duergar. Why would a duergar attack them?

"I wasn't aiming for the golem," she retorted and at that moment the golem crashed through the floor, the fire having burned through its footing.

"Why you little… Get her!" the duergar commanded and more figures dressed in black poured in from the hallway. Deziara didn't wait for them to come and catch her. Instead, she activated her speed magic and zipped towards the mage. Then she activated strength magic, something she had learned just a few years ago, and hoisted Azrael up onto her shoulder as if he weighed no more than a feather.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The attackers stared in disbelief at her strength but didn't linger for long, instead lunging towards her. But they were too slow. Far too slow. Deziara had already run up to the window and jumped out. Thankfully, this was just the second floor, so the landing didn't hurt her much. Unfortunately, this was also where the stone golem had fallen through, and the construct now smashed through the wall to run after her.

But they wouldn't catch her. Nobody could catch her because when it came to speed, Deziara was unbeatable. Not even Morrigan in her shadow form could keep up with her anymore. Even Azrael's weight couldn't hold her back much thanks to the strength magic she had learned.

Her mother had been completely against it – strength magic was something used by guards and soldiers, not princesses. But after that time when she and Morrigan had been taken away by Asdeus, Deziara knew she needed that strength to fight. Not just to protect herself, but to protect her precious little sister. And when Morrigan announced that she was going to go on a tour around the Underworld, Deziara redoubled her training efforts.

After all, she couldn't do strong fire magic like Morrigan or Azrael that burned through everything it touched. She couldn't control shadows like her father could and neither should bend the earth to her will like Viana could. She had tried so many elemental magics but had very little affinity with them. No matter how hard she practiced, she could never compare to something Morrigan could do in her sleep.

But when it came to magic that enhanced physical speed and strength, Deziara was unmatched. It was what she was good at and so she honed it, perfected it despite the fact that it was unladylike and not something a princess should do. She even has been working to learn proper swordsmanship like her father, but unfortunately, she does not yet have a sword of her own.

"What are you gawking at, you fools? Get her! We need to catch at least one of these princesses," the duergar roared, and suddenly the whole town came to life, and figures dressed in black from head to toe appeared from every possible corner. Deziara cursed under her breath and then ran, doing her best to avoid the enemies.

Another thing Deziara was good at was dodging. Even if the enemies ran straight at her and seemingly had her surrounded, she could still avoid them either by jumping over them or quickly turning and changing her direction. If she weren't carrying Azrael, then she would have been long gone already, but she needed the fool to wake up and tell her where Morrigan and the others had gone.

What Deziara noticed as she evaded the seemingly unending horde of attackers was the fact they weren't all duergar. Some were really tall and dark skinned, signifying that they were likely drow. Some were tall and had light skin – elves. There were even some deep gnomes among the bunch, rushing from beneath their comrades' feet, attempting to block Deziara's way. But she avoided them all, gracefully like a dancer, and before long – left them in her dust.

I just hope I'm going in the right direction. And I hope Morrigan didn't get caught up in all this. Gosh, this is such a mess. Father will definitely force us to come back home after hearing about this.

***

"Wake up, Azrael!" Deziara growled, trying to shake the unconscious demon awake. Nothing. She'd been worried about him, but it looked like he was just sleeping. There was even some drool coming out of his mouth.

You leave me no choice, Azrael. I didn't want to do this, but… Okay, never mind. I've always wanted to do this.

Deziara grinned and then slapped him on his cheek. He sputtered awake in shock, jumping to his feet and looking around the dark in confusion.

"Wha? What happened? Where are we? Have we been captured?" he growled, and conjured up a blue fireball in his hand.

"Oh, put that out before they find us!" she growled, and Azrael put out the flames, looking down at her ruefully.

"Did you have to slap me awake?"

"You wouldn't wake up otherwise," Deziara shrugged, a small smile appearing on her lips. Azrael growled, then clutched at his head.

"It feels like I've been hit by a cliff," he groaned.

"You were hit by a stone golem, so I suppose it's similar enough," Deziara shrugged. "Anyway, forget about that. We need to reunite with Morri before these guys catch us. I've gotten a good distance away from them, but they were rather persistent."

"Forget about this, she says. It really hurt, you know," Azrael snapped his fingers and a potion bottle appeared in his hands. He uncorked the bottle and swiftly drank the liquid. "Okay, that's better. But you are right that we can't linger around here. Oh, damn."

"What? Do you sense them coming?" Deziara asked worriedly and looked around, her muscles tensing.

"No, Princess Morrigan must be waiting for us. I need to send her a message," Azrael said and then began writing glowing letters into the space in front of him with his finger.

"Can't we just go to her?" Deziara asked.

"We could, but the problem is that you've taken us in the opposite direction of where we need to go and I can't pinpoint her location. The pendant the King gave her blocks any tracking magic," He finished his short message, and the letters converged together and turned into a little glowing light. Azrael blew on it and it sped away, quickly disappearing into the dark of the Underworld.

"Oops…" Deziara smiled guiltily. But what could she do? It's not like she has ever traveled through the Underworld before. Not to mention, that her goal was to escape from the attackers rather than find the right direction.

"It's alright. We'll just teleport to the next town and wait for Morrigan there," Azrael shrugged.

"Wait, it's that easy?" She asked in shock.

"Yeah, pretty much. Teleporting one more person along with me is not that difficult. Although it would have been too much if we were any further away. I'm not exactly in top condition right now," Azrael said, and Deziara remembered how much he had to drink. For someone who is supposed to be their ultimate protector on this journey, he sure was unreliable.

"Alright, let's go then. I'm tired and want to sleep. Also, we need to figure out a way to convince Father to let us continue on the journey," Deziara said.

"Are you crazy? If the King finds out, then it is clear that all of us are going back," Azrael laughed and before Deziara could say a word, he put his hand on her shoulder and both of them disappeared into the darkness.